Churchwork
06-25-2006, 03:22 PM
Mat 13:31 Another parable he put before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field;
Mat 13:32 it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."
Mat 13:33 He told them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened."
The parable of the mustard seed is parallel with the parable of the leaven, except that the mustard seed speaks of the external while the leaven speaks of the internal.
The emphasis here is on the smallest of all seeds. The Jews usually used the mustard seed as a simile for smallest (see Matt. 17.20), just as we often use the dust particle to portray anything tiny.
Mustard seed represents the principle of the word of life, for God’s word is life. The man in Matt. 13 is Christ, and the field is the world. The Lord unobtrusively plants the word of God in the world. Before 1828, the majority of commentators took this parable of the mustard seed as signifying the outward development of the church, for within a short period of time the church had spread over Asia. Further, they considered the parable of the leaven as representing the inner growth of the church, inasmuch as the three measures of meal are regarded as a symbol for the whole world.
But since 1828, people such as J.N. Darby and others have raised their voices against such an interpretation, deeming them totally unscriptural and of purely human imagination. For if the entire world were to be improved, then what is the explanation for why there are the tares and for why three-fourths of the soil is unproductive in the preceding parables? Moreover, if such improvement were to occur, there would not be mentioned the parable of the net which follows. Where in the Bible does the number three ever represent the world? Only the numbers two (the Gentiles and Jews) and four (Rev. 7.9—nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues) are used to suggest the whole world. Judging from the collective facts of all the parables, no good fruits are expected from the world.
How, then, should the parable of the mustard seed be explained? According to Genesis 1.11-12, whatever God created bears fruit after its own kind. The vegetables will always be vegetables, the birds will always be birds, and the monkeys will never become human beings. Yet this mustard bush grows abnormally into a tree. This is against the will of God. The church is ordained to be the smallest, the meekest, and the most inconspicuous. But alas, she has become a tree—she has developed today into the complicated entity known as Christianity. During the second and third centuries gnosticism invaded Christianity. This is typified by the parable of the leaven. Thereafter, the church, under the Roman Catholic system, has performed mockeries of all kinds.
With a royal decree, for example, tens of thousands of soldiers were baptized in one day. Becoming a Christian in those days meant for a person to have special privileges: a gain of four pieces of silver, two changes of suit, and so forth. The church has indeed become like a tree! And in the parable of the mustard seed we can see that the birds of the heaven denote the evil one, even Satan (see vv.4,19) and his influences. Satan is most clever. He knows where he can roost, and he will not let go such an opportunity. How preposterous has the Roman Catholic Church become—a headquarters of Satan! Yet today’s Protestant church follows suit. Christmas, for example, is a bird which flew from the Roman Catholic Church into the Protestant Church.
What does the tree signify? And what are typified by the birds? In Daniel 4.20, 22 we learn that the tree represented the power and dominion of Babylon, and in Ezekiel 31.3-6 it represented the power and dominion of the king of Assyria. So that generally speaking, the tree points to earthly power—especially as it pertains to the political realm. Birds denote sins which come from Satan. The sins in the church today actually include all the sins of the world. Is there any sin which is not found in the church? The church has become Babylon, full of confusion; she has also become a large department store. Satan is most clever. If he devours the seed (v.4), he only partially succeeds. He therefore changes his tactic by inflating the church so as to make it possible for all the birds to come and roost. The brand trademark is Christianity, but the medicine sold is Satan’s.
What has the Lord ordained for the church? She is to be unknown to the world (1 John 3.1), the world is to be crucified to her (Gal. 6.14), and she is to be a sojourner and a pilgrim (1 Peter 2.11). How very insignificant is the church in the eyes of the world. She has no relationship with the world. D.M. Panton once said that in life the world is a pathway, in death it at most offers him a coffin. Let me say here that if it does not even give me a coffin, I will not mind at all.
How does the church become abnormally large? In the same way that a plant does; namely, by sending its roots deep down into the earth and drawing profusely the nutrition in the soil. So that in this sense the church grows with the help of the world. (For this reason, Christians should not seek glory from the world.)
The differences between a vegetable and a tree are as follows:
(1) A vegetable is an annual or bi-annual plant requiring re-seeding over and over again, whereas a tree takes many years to grow and is therefore perennial in character. How the church, like the mustard plant in the parable, has lost her sojourner-and stranger-like character.
(2) Vegetables have leaves, but trees have branches. Let us observe how the activities of the church are so heavily advertised and how divided is the church into many sects!
(3) A vegetable root is only two or three inches, but the root of a tree is several times the height of the tree’s own trunk and grows down very deeply into the ground. Similarly, the church has become worldly and is deeply rooted in the world. Unlike the vegetable which generally dies in three months, the tree lives a long life.
How the church has lost her original quality of depending on God. God wants His church to return to the vegetable state as presented in Genesis, but she would rather be a tree. She has become a tree having an enormous outward form, yet she is so lacking in reality. She has lost her chastity, and is thus unable to lead the world to repentance. And in all of this, Satan gains the most profit.
Let us therefore maintain the appropriate "smallness" like a little flock. Do not admire the greatness of men. In honor prefer one another; in suffering, outdo one another. Let us have the will to suffer. Let our pocket be poor if necessary, if only our spirit may be rich. The secret of victory lies in standing on the ground which the Lord has given us. When Saul esteemed himself as small, God used him. But when he became self-important, God sought for another person—David. The person whom the Lord seeks is a small vessel, not a big one.
Mat 13:32 it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."
Mat 13:33 He told them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened."
The parable of the mustard seed is parallel with the parable of the leaven, except that the mustard seed speaks of the external while the leaven speaks of the internal.
The emphasis here is on the smallest of all seeds. The Jews usually used the mustard seed as a simile for smallest (see Matt. 17.20), just as we often use the dust particle to portray anything tiny.
Mustard seed represents the principle of the word of life, for God’s word is life. The man in Matt. 13 is Christ, and the field is the world. The Lord unobtrusively plants the word of God in the world. Before 1828, the majority of commentators took this parable of the mustard seed as signifying the outward development of the church, for within a short period of time the church had spread over Asia. Further, they considered the parable of the leaven as representing the inner growth of the church, inasmuch as the three measures of meal are regarded as a symbol for the whole world.
But since 1828, people such as J.N. Darby and others have raised their voices against such an interpretation, deeming them totally unscriptural and of purely human imagination. For if the entire world were to be improved, then what is the explanation for why there are the tares and for why three-fourths of the soil is unproductive in the preceding parables? Moreover, if such improvement were to occur, there would not be mentioned the parable of the net which follows. Where in the Bible does the number three ever represent the world? Only the numbers two (the Gentiles and Jews) and four (Rev. 7.9—nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues) are used to suggest the whole world. Judging from the collective facts of all the parables, no good fruits are expected from the world.
How, then, should the parable of the mustard seed be explained? According to Genesis 1.11-12, whatever God created bears fruit after its own kind. The vegetables will always be vegetables, the birds will always be birds, and the monkeys will never become human beings. Yet this mustard bush grows abnormally into a tree. This is against the will of God. The church is ordained to be the smallest, the meekest, and the most inconspicuous. But alas, she has become a tree—she has developed today into the complicated entity known as Christianity. During the second and third centuries gnosticism invaded Christianity. This is typified by the parable of the leaven. Thereafter, the church, under the Roman Catholic system, has performed mockeries of all kinds.
With a royal decree, for example, tens of thousands of soldiers were baptized in one day. Becoming a Christian in those days meant for a person to have special privileges: a gain of four pieces of silver, two changes of suit, and so forth. The church has indeed become like a tree! And in the parable of the mustard seed we can see that the birds of the heaven denote the evil one, even Satan (see vv.4,19) and his influences. Satan is most clever. He knows where he can roost, and he will not let go such an opportunity. How preposterous has the Roman Catholic Church become—a headquarters of Satan! Yet today’s Protestant church follows suit. Christmas, for example, is a bird which flew from the Roman Catholic Church into the Protestant Church.
What does the tree signify? And what are typified by the birds? In Daniel 4.20, 22 we learn that the tree represented the power and dominion of Babylon, and in Ezekiel 31.3-6 it represented the power and dominion of the king of Assyria. So that generally speaking, the tree points to earthly power—especially as it pertains to the political realm. Birds denote sins which come from Satan. The sins in the church today actually include all the sins of the world. Is there any sin which is not found in the church? The church has become Babylon, full of confusion; she has also become a large department store. Satan is most clever. If he devours the seed (v.4), he only partially succeeds. He therefore changes his tactic by inflating the church so as to make it possible for all the birds to come and roost. The brand trademark is Christianity, but the medicine sold is Satan’s.
What has the Lord ordained for the church? She is to be unknown to the world (1 John 3.1), the world is to be crucified to her (Gal. 6.14), and she is to be a sojourner and a pilgrim (1 Peter 2.11). How very insignificant is the church in the eyes of the world. She has no relationship with the world. D.M. Panton once said that in life the world is a pathway, in death it at most offers him a coffin. Let me say here that if it does not even give me a coffin, I will not mind at all.
How does the church become abnormally large? In the same way that a plant does; namely, by sending its roots deep down into the earth and drawing profusely the nutrition in the soil. So that in this sense the church grows with the help of the world. (For this reason, Christians should not seek glory from the world.)
The differences between a vegetable and a tree are as follows:
(1) A vegetable is an annual or bi-annual plant requiring re-seeding over and over again, whereas a tree takes many years to grow and is therefore perennial in character. How the church, like the mustard plant in the parable, has lost her sojourner-and stranger-like character.
(2) Vegetables have leaves, but trees have branches. Let us observe how the activities of the church are so heavily advertised and how divided is the church into many sects!
(3) A vegetable root is only two or three inches, but the root of a tree is several times the height of the tree’s own trunk and grows down very deeply into the ground. Similarly, the church has become worldly and is deeply rooted in the world. Unlike the vegetable which generally dies in three months, the tree lives a long life.
How the church has lost her original quality of depending on God. God wants His church to return to the vegetable state as presented in Genesis, but she would rather be a tree. She has become a tree having an enormous outward form, yet she is so lacking in reality. She has lost her chastity, and is thus unable to lead the world to repentance. And in all of this, Satan gains the most profit.
Let us therefore maintain the appropriate "smallness" like a little flock. Do not admire the greatness of men. In honor prefer one another; in suffering, outdo one another. Let us have the will to suffer. Let our pocket be poor if necessary, if only our spirit may be rich. The secret of victory lies in standing on the ground which the Lord has given us. When Saul esteemed himself as small, God used him. But when he became self-important, God sought for another person—David. The person whom the Lord seeks is a small vessel, not a big one.